Republicans defy Trump, reap the consequences

On Thursday, the House failed to override President Donald Trump’s veto of a bill championed by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) to secure clean drinking water for her constituents. This came even though just last month, the bill had passed unanimously. This time, only 24 Republicans voted for the initiative. “This is a bill that, in policy, no one in that chamber disagreed with,” Boebert told The Independent in a gaggle after the vote on Thursday. “This was purely political, and it’s very unfortunate, but I’m not taking it out personally on anybody. I’m going to use my frustration as motivation to continue to get this over the line.”

While it’s not clear why exactly Trump vetoed the legislation, it’s hard not to see that Trump hung Boebert, one of his most enthusiastic supporters in the House, literally out to dry after she joined the discharge petition to force a vote to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein. It reveals the double-bind Republicans face: as the president becomes increasingly unpopular or when he directly defies their local interests, they have to find ways to break with him. But his megaphone and sway on the Republican electorate remains tight.

On Thursday, five Republicans joined with Senate Democrats on a War Powers Act resolution to rein in any future activity in Venezuela. One of the Republicans, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, insisted to reporters that he did not mean to cross the president. “This is all about going forward, if the president should determine, ‘you know what, I need to put troops on the ground in Venezuela, I think that wouldn’t require Congress,’” Hawley said.

It didn’t work. Later that day, Trump lit into Hawley and his cohorts -Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Todd Young of Indiana -for voting for the resolution, saying they “should never be elected to office again.” It’s a bold statement, considering Collins is up for re-election in what will be a tough race and her occasional votes with Democrats are the only thing that keeps her afloat in liberal New England. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who is up for re-election this year, told reporters not to make too much of it.

“I think you should check back with him and see how he feels in a few days,” he told reporters on Thursday. “But obviously, he was irritated with that outcome. I think it was a bad outcome myself, because I think people are interpreting this as somehow a rebuke.” Cornyn needs to stay on Trump’s good side to survive a bruising primary against Attorney General Ken Paxton and avoid Trump endorsing the super-MAGA Paxton. That might give Republicans less of an incentive to vote on a War Powers resolution pushed by Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego to prevent Trump from putting troops on the ground in Greenland.

The only Republican who seems comfortable lighting into Stephen Miller, the most vocal champion of the idea, is retiring Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina. “It should be to Stephen Miller that if he wants to take a position that the president supports, that’s fine. He doesn’t speak for me,” he told The Independent. “And I’m just saying, keep in your lane or know what you’re talking about and never represent it.” On the other side of the Capitol that same day, 17 Republicans defected to vote for legislation with Democrats to extend the expanded tax credits for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance marketplace.

Almost all of them are in tough re-election races. But don’t expect Trump to give them breathing room for siding with Democrats. It’s only a matter of time before he turns his attention to them the way he did Boebert. And Republicans learn they have to tread lightly around Trump. Many Hispanics in South Florida who voted for Trump hoped that his capture of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro would be the beginning of Democracy. But Trump has shown little interest in supporting opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, instead propping up Maduro’s deputy Delcy Rodriguez. But when asked about it, Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida, who is Cuban-American, did not seem bothered. “It’s a means to an end,” he told The Independent. “It’s up to the Venezuelan people to that’s whoever the Venezuelan people want. And right now, I believe the Venezuelan people want Maria Corina Machado.”